


go places: d.gray-man high school alternate universe; the one about entrance exams.

by warfare



Series: D.Gray-Man High School Alternate Universe [3]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-24
Updated: 2008-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-19 04:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warfare/pseuds/warfare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes a heart should always go one step too far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	go places: d.gray-man high school alternate universe; the one about entrance exams.

**Author's Note:**

> This is maybe the most plot-filled thing I have ever written, and I can't decide if it's suffered for it (also - grad school has KILLED my writing. Just KILLED it). I can never stop writing this universe, but this encompassed several smaller ideas I'd had for it. It's Christmas fic, for [](http://derogatory.livejournal.com/profile)[**derogatory**](http://derogatory.livejournal.com/) (the prompt was " _DGM more high school au, perhaps preparing for college?!! anything_ "). I've been staring at this thing (which is actually I think the longest fic I've ever written, tragically) for so long that I can't tell if I hate it or not, but - here you go anyway. Oh PS. This whole thing was written to "Go Places" by the New Pornographers, so: put the song on, get ready for reading.

Lavi has developed a schedule when it comes to school mornings. He likes to get up near the crack of dawn, often before the first rays of light come filtering through his blinds; he eats a leisurely breakfast with his grandpa, stuffs his work haphazardly into his bag, and bikes to the neighborhood around the school.

Then he finds a bookstore and stands around reading manga until the last possible second, because he's found that the image of a student who is constantly running in at the last possible second is first: much easier to uphold, and second: much, much more fun.

One of these mornings at the end of his second year, he's biking along the riverbank when he sees a long head of hair, much longer than a boy's should really be, jogging ahead of him toward school. With a grin, he speeds up, then cuts in front of the jogger.

"Hey, Yuu! At that pace you'll never make the bell! You want a ride?" Kanda’s face is flushed with the exertion of his jog, and his athletic bag is slung over his shoulders, backpack-style. He makes a face that clearly indicates that he would most definitely _not_ like to hitch a ride on the back of Lavi's bicycle, and grumbles,

"Aren't you early today? I overheard some of the guys in your class talking about how you almost never really make the bell."

"Ahhhh, Yuu, that's neither here nor there!!" Lavi at least has the decency to flush before turning the question back on his friend, saying, "And anyway, didn't you say the reason we couldn't walk to school together was because you have practice in the morning?! What are you doing back here? Was it just a lie? Are you keeping your schedule open to walk to school with a girl? Too mean, Yuu!"

"I've already practiced this morning," Kanda retorts, "but I forgot my Future Goals Report sheet on my desk, so I had to run back and get it." He shoots Lavi a look that could slice bone and demands, "You didn't forget yours, right? They're due today."

Lavi finds himself denying it before he even thinks about whether or not he actually has the sheet. "What are you talking about, class rep; of course I've brought it!" He has, he remembers, although he's not sure of its condition; once he’d finished it, he’d shoved it in the bottom of his bag and hasn’t retrieved it since. He grins in a way he hopes is disarming but mostly just manages to be obnoxious and motions to the seat of his bike. "Anyway, how about hopping on the back, here, and we'll both be at school on time?"

Kanda stares for a minute as if he's trying to figure out what Lavi's angle is before shrugging and climbing on. He's gotten heavier since the last time he's ridden like this, Lavi can't help noticing, but it looks to be mostly muscle; in middle school when they used to go together to school Kanda'd always struck Lavi with his girlish willowyness, the femininity of his face. There's nothing like that now, he thinks with a sigh that might be ever-so-slightly tinged with regret. "If you're gonna go, then GO!" Kanda barks at him, and Lavi wobbles in surprise for a second before kicking the stand up and setting off.

They're making good time when Lavi breaks the comfortable silence, starting, "I guess you've decided where you're trying for college, huh? I'm trying for three, 'cause there were three slots on the sheet, right - that private school in town, they've got a pretty good name, another private school, this one in the city - the one that Lenalee's brother went to? And that public school in the city; you know gramps went there."

"Hn," is Kanda's only reply.

The sun is mostly up at this point, and the light bouncing off of the pavement gives Lavi a little bit of a headache. "What about you?" Kanda pauses for a minute, perhaps trying to frame his response, before admitting in a quieter tone than usual,

"I haven't decided yet. My paper's still blank. I guess I thought I'd think of something to write and turn it in at the last second." Lavi knows that Kanda isn't good at planning ahead, and that he's more focused on his club activities than anything else right now, but this admission surprises him anyway.

"Yuu, don't you want to go to university?" Kanda shrugs, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation. "Ah, if you don't have schools you already want to try for, why don't you just put mine down?"

"Why would I do that?" Kanda grumbles, voice embarrassed. "We don't even have the same interests!"

"Ah--!! But think of how much fun we would have, Yuu! We'd be living in the city! I could take classes from some of the greatest academics in the country, and you could sleep through your lectures, and then after we could go out for yakiniku!! HEY, WE COULD BE ROOMMATES, AND SHARE AN APARTMENT LIKE TWO ADULT MEN SETTING OUT ON THEIR OWN FOR THE FIRST TIME!!"

"Don’t assign me some slacker no-good college student persona!” Kanda's shoulder is pushing at Lavi's back, and Lavi knows that the way it's gone tense is a bad sign (like a video game boss who always uses "attack stat up" magic immediately before a major attack, he thinks).

Still, he can't resist adding, “Also, the public school has a really good kendo club!"

"GODDAMN IT, LAVI, WOULD YOU JUST FUCKING DROP IT?!" Apparently Kanda doesn't consider (or care) that attacking Lavi might have some negative effect on his steering, or take into account the canal they're riding next to. They tumble off of the road. They both arrive to school late, wet, and muddy. They're given new forms to fill out.

  
\--

  
"No way," Allen laughs good-naturedly that weekend; they've met up for parfaits (and in Kanda's case, just black tea) at a family restaurant near Lenalee's, and Lavi has been recounting his plan to them. "Isn't that school really difficult to get into?!"

"It doesn't matter," Kanda growls across the table at him, "since I'm not applying there anyway!"

"Sorry, Lavi," Allen grins at his friend, "I guess we'll just have to visit you a lot on the weekends."

Lenalee smiles knowingly at the three boys over her ice cream.

\--

  
Kanda makes prefecturals, then loses to a boy twice his size in the finals. Lavi thinks about entering a _juku_ , but most of the good ones have kids who've been in them since elementary school, and his grandpa points out - "why would I shell out all that money for extra work that you'll probably just sleep through anyway?!" Lavi supposes that he has a point. In the spring, Allen and Lenalee enter high school. None of them really talk about the upcoming entrance exams.

  
\--

  
One day in early June Lavi is summoned to school early for a conference with his homeroom teacher, who slams his latest practice test onto the desk along with his half-done homework and says in a voice that is openly biting back frustration that Lavi's problem is not intelligence but focus, and that he can't expect to skate by on just his practice scores, that isn't how the university exams work – especially not ones for public schools. Lavi listens with half-interest, contemplating how much work he's put into this slacker thing already, and wonders grumpily when teachers will start teaching him something he doesn't already know.

When it's over he wanders the grounds to clear his head; he isn't sure how he gets there, but he ends up in the kendo club's practice room. Kanda is the only one there; for a moment Lavi thinks that, like a movie, Kanda'll be too deeply lost in his practice to notice that he isn't alone. Unfortunately, Kanda's paranoia outweighs his warrior's soul, and he turns on his heel and stares at Lavi.

"What are you looking at?" The question lacks its usual bite, hazy with exhaustion. Kanda's face is once again flushed with exertion; he's sweating lightly. He must be planning to take a quick shower before class, Lavi thinks offhandedly, and then he's suddenly embarrassed to have been caught looking.

"You've got a tournament this week, right?" Lavi covers, hoping Kanda's not paying him close enough attention to notice the redness around his ears. "Good luck, team captain!"

Kanda stares at him for a moment before breaking out in a toothy, sharkish smile. "I don't need it." Somehow the expression shifts a little, losing its sharpness, and the way the morning light filters in through the doors has Lavi making excuses and cutting a hasty retreat to Allen's classroom.

  
\--

  
Lenalee tells Lavi around bites of cake (Allen's guardian has insisted that he help clean the house before a new lady friend drops by, so rather than burgers the two of them have gone to a cute sweet shop near Lavi's house), "Captaincy has really made Kanda-kun step up his game, hasn't it? I mean, he's always been serious about kendo, but I've never seen him like this. He's made it really far this year; I hear there have been university scouts coming to his matches!"

"I know, I was there for his last match," Lavi admits. He's making an unhappy face, and Lenalee can't decide if it's because he's getting nervous for Kanda's upcoming nationals match or if he's feeling neglected because Kanda hasn't had time for them all summer. Attempting to steer the subject toward something more palatable for Lavi, she notes thoughtfully,

"The sponsor of the school newspaper doesn't seem that interested, though… even though he seems to take photos of the track team all the time."

Lavi makes an entirely different face, buries his head in his hands, and mutters something along the lines of "That's because Bak-sensei has different hobbies, and a specific interest in the track team..." Lenalee can't help laughing.

"Sometimes you don't make any sense, Lavi."

Lavi's face clears, and he grins up at her gratefully before reaching over and taking a forkful of her cake.

  
\--

  
Lavi confides to Allen over lunch that, although it'd taken three years and a teacher intervention to get it accomplished, Kanda's class has finally succeeded in voting to have a cross-dressing cafe for the cultural festival. Apparently this has been a goal of Daisya, a friend of Lavi's who has been in Kanda's class all three years, since the first day of first year, but Kanda has willfully used his class rep status every year to halt its passage. Allen laughs uncontrollably for a full five minutes.

"I guess it’s good for Daisya then, huh? Since the school festival is kind of the third-years' last hurrah until you're done with entrance exams." Allen muses, more to himself than anyone else. He can't help feeling a little lonely at the prospect of Lavi leaving town.

"Haha, I guess you could say that," Lavi concedes a little ruefully, "although I may have already made plans for karaoke with Lenalee the weekend after the festival! Oh, by the way, you're coming, right?"

Allen supposes that Lavi'll probably get in wherever he wants with minimal studying.

  
\--

  
"Hey, Lenalee," Allen murmurs at his friend as they're waiting for Lavi and Kanda to get out of teacher conferences, "have you thought about where you're going to college?" He holds his hands up in surrender at her surprised expression, disclaiming, "I mean, I haven't really at all - I barely know anything about schools, Mana told me some things but shishou doesn't really talk about it; but because Lavi and Kanda seem so busy I can't get it off of my mind."

Lenalee pauses a moment, then smiles and nods. "I've thought about it a lot! I'm looking at applying to the school my brother graduated from, and of course onii-chan has found a whole list of private all-girl's colleges for me to try for..." Allen laughs in spite of himself. That sounds like Komui-sensei, all right. "What about Allen-kun? Have you got a plan yet?"

Allen's heart sinks a little, and he admits, "Not yet. I just never considered what I would do after this point, I guess. I am taking things a day at a time." He grins at her. "Having plans - it's not something everyone can do. I think that's really great, Lenalee."

  
\--

  
Lenalee doesn't say that she has always had a plan of one kind or another. She'd planned her college choices when her brother had; she wanted to be a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer. Someone who could help people.

She can't think, she realizes when she sees how lonely he looks when Lavi brings a practice test to karaoke and fills it out half-interestedly, of anyone she wants to help more than Allen.

  
\--

  
It's Christmas Eve; since none of them have significant others, all four of them go out for dinner and karaoke. They're out until the last train, and after Allen agrees to walk Lenalee home Kanda and Lavi are left alone in the abandoned train station. Lavi's had several vending machine beers, and Kanda isn't much better; fearing his grandpa's retribution, Lavi follows Kanda back to his apartment. If Kanda notices, he doesn't say anything. On the way they pick up convenience-store bento. When Kanda lets Lavi into the apartment, he simply mutters, "don't say anything" and pushes past into the kitchenette to heat water for tea.

Lavi takes the moment to take in Kanda's apartment; it's studio-style, Spartan, with only the basics of furniture. That doesn't particularly surprise Lavi, and neither does the neatly hung kendo uniform or the nationals trophy (shoved into a corner; once it was won it was easily forgotten). What takes him off guard is the sheer amount of college exam preparation books stacked everywhere.

"Yuu, did you finally decide which exams you're taking?"

"Of course," Kanda grouses from behind a thick curtain of hair, "I'm not _irresponsible_!" He stumbles into the main room with two cups of tea. "A school a city over scouted me. I'd be allowed on the kendo team, but I have to pass the exam first."

Lavi looks over the half-finished practice exams spread out over the kotatsu. They look like they're way over Kanda's head.

Kanda's voice is slurred and his eyes are a little unfocused, and he admits offhandedly, "Marie and Daisya are both applying."

Lavi looks up, catches himself staring at his friend's alcohol-flushed face, and tries to ignore how miserable this information makes him.

When he wakes up in the morning he is back-to-back with Kanda. The other boy's a light sleeper, but he doesn't stir when Lavi presses his back harder to Kanda's, searching for a heartbeat. Lavi forces his good eye closed and tries to shut out the image of Kanda's nationals trophy, buried in the corner under piles of study guides.

  
\--

  
The day of the public school entrance exam, Lavi gets up early and arrives with a half hour to spare. Thankfully, he's at the front, so he doesn't have to see all of the other examinees as they file in. He finishes with plenty of time, takes a nap until they allow everyone to go home. He dawdles in a secondhand record store for a while and then drags his feet on the way back. His grandfather knows better than to ask how it went, so Lavi skips dinner and shuts himself in his room. He stares at the ceiling and thinks of Allen and Lenalee eating lunch alone together, of Kanda and Daisya sleeping through classes at their new university a city away, of all the money he's going to spend on train tickets home.

  
\--

  
Lavi doesn't hang out with Kanda much after his exams are over; it's partially because Allen's schedule always seems to be open and partially because he can't bear to think about college alone; he'd been fine when he'd transferred here. When had he become so dependent on these people?

One morning he's heading to school for a final report with his homeroom teacher regarding how he'd felt about the exam, and he notices a familiar head of hair jogging toward the school. He considers taking another route, but somehow in spite of his own misgivings his muscles move, and he's speeding ahead and cutting in front.

"Heading to school?" Kanda looks surprised for a second - it's been a while since they've seen each other. He looks tired, Lavi thinks, probably both from the exertion of his run and from his own examinations. Kanda looks like he's thinking hard for a moment (it isn't easy for him, and it's always obvious when he does it), before grinning and retorting,

"For someone who always shows up late, you sure wake up early."

Something inside Lavi eases somehow, and he starts to laugh. The winter sun hasn't quite risen, and without saying anything else Kanda climbs onto the back of Lavi's bike, grabs his shoulders, and holds on. They take off toward their school without any more conversation.

  
\--

  
The day that results are posted for the public school entrance exams is a rainy one in early spring. Lavi drags Allen along with him for moral support (and also because he feels like he’ll go crazy without someone paying attention to him), promising to treat him to food in the city - all he can eat; but his friend is drowsy and nodding off, and Lavi's left alone with his thoughts. They take one of the first trains into the city, transfer to the subway, and finally step out of the station and into the crisp, cool air. The walk to the school is fairly short ("it'll be easy to visit, huh Lavi?" Allen asks teasingly, and Lavi replies with nervousness-fueled laughter). When they arrive at the bulletin board where results are posted, he searches for his identification number; of course it's up there, near the top. He lets a tired sigh go, and as Allen asks, "hey Lavi, did you make it? What's your number?" he turns around and prepares to leave.

He slams directly into Kanda.

The clouds are beginning to clear, but it's still raining; both of their umbrellas are forgotten on the ground. Droplets of water are running uncontrolled down Lavi's face, but all that he can see is that there's a slight flush - NOT from exertion - coloring Kanda's cheeks. They stare at each other for a moment, dumbstruck. Lenalee runs up the hill, going,

"Kanda-kun, will you wait a second, I told you I was buying some juice--" she stops short when she sees her friends. "Allen-kun? Lavi-kun?"

"Ah, Lenalee!" Allen walks over to her; her arms are filled with bags, and she looks like she's about to drop the sodas she's purchased. "Do you need some help?" She smiles at him gratefully and offers an armful.

"What," Lavi manages to croak out, "Are you doing here?"

Kanda's face folds into a grimace, and he looks away. "Lenalee wanted to go into the city, and now that exams are done I didn't have a good reason not to go with he--" his explanation is cut off by Lenalee's little foot shoving into the small of his back, and he wheels around, grousing, "What was THAT fo--"

"Kanda-kun," Lenalee reprimands him with a soft smile toward Lavi. "Sometimes it's kinder to tell the truth."

"The truth?" Allen's face indicates that he has no idea what is happening. Lavi stares at Kanda's hand; an identification number is written on it in Lenalee's handwriting, possibly with a felt-tipped pen. His memory, always perfect, flashes back to the board - it'd been the second to last number there.

"You got in," he states, voice thick with disbelief.

"HE GOT IN?!" Lenalee's sprint over to the board would have made the track team coach weep for joy.

"You _applied_?!" Allen's voice is the most disbelieving of all.

Kanda doesn't say anything, just shoots Allen a withering look and turns slightly redder. Lenalee comes back, confirms the news, and Kanda's shoulders sag a little bit with - what? Embarrassment? Relief? Lavi can't tell for sure, but he feels like this is the same expression that Kanda made after he won at Nationals.

  
\--

  
When he watches Kanda step up and take his class' diplomas, Lavi feels like he's in a dream. The whole graduation ceremony thing seems so unbearably sudden, like something he isn't ready for and really isn't even equipped to acknowledge. Allen and Lenalee run toward him afterward; Lenalee is laughing and crying at the same time, and Allen insists he isn't crying but keeps wiping his eyes suspiciously with his sleeve. Lavi thinks that he sees Kanda, first talking to the kendo club advisor and then to Daisya and Marie, and then Lavi can't find him at all.

After everything's over, Lavi makes excuses to his grandfather and assures Lenalee and Allen that he'll meet up with them at the family restaurant as soon as he finds Kanda. Rather than seeking the other boy out, however, he walks down the third-year's halls, taking in the classrooms and the smell of chalkboard and running his fingers along the windowsills. He whispers his goodbyes into the cement, and he knows that they’ll stay there for at least as long as Allen and Lenalee do – honestly, Lavi thinks, he knows that eventually his friends will leave, but he hopes that bits and pieces of him’ll linger in the hallways of this place forever.

When he makes it to the kendo practice room, the sun is sinking down below the skyline. Kanda's leaning against the doorframe, looking up at the ceiling as if he's never seen it before. His diploma dangles carelessly in one hand, almost forgotten, like his nationals trophy gathering dust in the corner of his apartment. Lavi tries to say "Allen and Lenalee are waiting" or "Let's go," but all he manages is,

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't do it for you," Kanda retorts almost immediately, as if he's been holding it in for weeks - and he probably has, Lavi realizes ruefully, he's probably been thinking it furiously this whole time and just hasn't wanted to seem too defensive.

"You could have told me anyway! I would've helped you study, Yuu! We could have done this whole thing together!" Kanda's brows knit, like he wants to be furious but can't manage it here. "Besides, what did you do it for, then?" Kanda's annoyance shifts to the grin he usually wears right before he switches from defense to attacking, and he retorts,

"It's like you said; they have a very good kendo team."

And Lavi's furious, more furious than he's been this whole time, and he realizes that all of this loneliness and sadness and nervousness and worry, it's all Kanda's fault for being stupid and stubborn and incapable of human understanding, and before he knows what he's doing he's punched Kanda in the jaw.

That's enough of an invitation for the other boy, who snarls and shoves him into the practice room before going after him in earnest, and then they're on each other, all kicking and fists and (Lavi isn't proud, but Kanda has been asking for it this whole time) maybe some hair-pulling, and then Kanda goes down and pulls Lavi down with him, and Lavi isn't sure what happens exactly but he freezes and he is leaning over Kanda and for some reason he can't stop crying.

"You could have told me," he sobs, and Kanda sits up, frowns grumpily, and reluctantly pats Lavi on the back. His face is slightly flushed from the exertion of their fight, and there's blood trickling down from his eyebrow, but he reaches up and grabs Lavi's tie, pulls him down into perhaps the single most awkward hug Lavi has ever experienced.

"Don't expect the impossible, goddamn it," Kanda grouses, but the way his hand lingers on the small of Lavi's back a moment too long just has Lavi scrunching his good eye up to stop it from crying and clutching weakly at the fabric of Kanda's uniform jacket. After a moment Kanda shoves Lavi off of him, hard, and as Lavi stares at his friend Kanda is standing up, brushing his pants off, fixing his hair, and picking up his diploma from the floor where it'd fallen when he used it to brain Lavi.

"Come on," he urges, "Lenalee and that beansprout are waiting for us, right?"

Lavi'd biked to the ceremony, but Kanda'd walked; before Lavi can even offer, Kanda grumbles, "Only if I'm pedaling." Lavi's grin is a thousand watts bright when he nods his approval. He hops onto the back seat and Kanda takes his place at the front.

"The truth is," Kanda admits without turning to look at the other boy, "that I can't afford an apartment in the city by myself, and Marie and Daisya didn’t end up getting in, so you'd better stick to your goddamn word about that roommate thing."

Lavi laughs, rests his head on Kanda's back and feels the heartbeat there. It's faster than probably normal, he realizes, but Lavi's face is bright red. They have four years to decide the ramifications of that phenomenon, though, Lavi decides, and he keeps laughing long after Kanda's kicked off and away from the school. Their home for three years disappears into the night horizon, but Lavi just can't stop grinning, and he and Kanda pedal downhill, toward the sun, into the city, and back to Lenalee and Allen.


End file.
